Bando (Elfen Lied)
Bando is a recurring antagonist turned anti-hero in the Anime/Manga, Elfen Lied. About Bando, when first introduced, is an operative for the National Police Agency's Special Assault Team (SAT). His combat skills, bloodlust, and almost single-minded determination made him one of it's top agents. While normally highly apathetic, sadistic, aggressive, and decidedly anti-social, he was also driven by his own personal sense of honor and obligation to complete whatever mission he was given no matter what. Biography Bando and the S.A.T team were sent in pursuit of the recently-escaped Lucy. Finding her while her Nyu personality was dominant, Bando attacked. First he knocked Yuka and a protesting Kouta unconscious, then attempted to engage Nyu in battle. However, Nyu didn't give him the fight he was looking for, being terrified instead, and out of disgust for this supposedly "vicious killer" not turning out how he hoped, Bando ordered his junior partner, Satou, to kill her instead after he struck her in the head. Lucy woke up from the blow, and brutally killed Satou as she realized the situation. After killing Satou, she and Bando fought, with Bando trying to shoot at her and getting all types of projectiles thrown at him in return. Bando held his own rather well against her, figuring out almost immediately how to best use her 2-meter range against her, but he didn't count on her using the gun she lifted from Satou's corpse. Surprised his target was shooting at him now, Bando lost the upper hand to Lucy... as well as his actual right hand. She then broke his left arm and gouged out his eyes, taunting him the entire time. Fortunately for him, she reverted back to Nyu and fled, leaving him enraged in his helpless state. The then-homeless Mayu saw him and tended to his wounds the best she could before going to call an ambulance for him. After being told by Kurama and Professor Kakuzawa he would need to be castrated in order to prevent his infection by Lucy's vectors resulting in horned children, he desperately tried to find some alternatives since he feared the removal of his testicles and therefore a drop in testosterone would only hinder his fight against Lucy. After an awkward encounter with Nyu outside of the college attended by Kouta and Yuka, Bando heard the opinion of Professor Kakuzawa, but rejected what he correctly saw as the insane pro-Diclonius agenda the Professor put forward. Determined to take vengeance on Lucy for what she did to him, he agreed to undergo operations to replace his eyes and arm with cybernetic parts, but drew the line at efforts to castrate him in order to prevent any more Diclonius births. Escaping the Doctor's office with the partial connivance of Isobe, he used his SAT membership to build up his ammo before it was revoked and focused his time and resources on a rematch with Lucy. In the meantime, he made alliances (to widely varying degrees) with Lucy's enemies: Nana and Kurama. Allying with them placed him in a pivotal role in their struggle against Mariko, Kurama's daughter. At one point, Bando stopped the despondent Kurama from committing suicide after Mariko's death, even caring for him while he recuperated. It also seems that he got in touch with Saseba (a secret intelligence body in Japan meant to watch over and oppose the Kakuzawas' emerging agenda) while tending to Kurama's health. He slowly developed a somewhat friendly relationship of a sort with Mayu, who he grudgingly came to accept while maintaining his gruff exterior. Mayu even called on him to rescue her and Nana from the sexual assault of the Unknown Man, but their relationship nearly ended when he learned that Mayu had lied to him about Lucy/Nyu living with her in the Maple House. Seeking his forgiveness, Mayu was caught up in a battle on the beach between Bando, Lucy, and the Unknown Man. Bando, having wisely cleared the beach of debris to remove any potential weapons for Lucy, again held his own against the Diclonius and somehow dodged both direct attacks from Lucy's vectors and many of her most clever indirect attacks by feeling for vibrations in the air. He also made good use of the specialized crossbow he seized from Unknown Man to place Lucy firmly on the defensive for once. This crossbow would once again turn up in the possession of the Japanese government's Agent inside Chief Kakuzawa's organization. When Mayu's memories of Lucy's dismemberment of Nana returned, Lucy was implied to be ready and willing to kill her and even appeared to attempt it, only for Bando to take the blow. Lucy ripped off his remaining arm, sliced him in half, then fled the scene. As he died in Mayu's arms, Bandou reflected on a long-held wish he had for someone to cry over him when he died, a wish he always thought unlikely since he isolated himself from society his whole life. After he seemingly died, Mayu continued cleaning the beach where Bando lived. In the last chapter, Bando is revealed to be alive, as he approaches Mayu on the beach and arrogantly tells her there was no way he could die while she tearfully runs to him and embraces him. A close-up shot of his foot and lower torso indicates he was resuscitated through the use of bionics and prostheses, but no definite explanation is ever given. It's possible Kurama's connections aided in this. Mayu's feelings for Bando were romantic in nature, but it's not clear if Bando saw her as anything more than a kid, making it more likely his view of their relationship was more platonic/parental. He reciprocated her feelings enough to humor her in letting her express her feelings. Anime adaptation In the anime's final episodes, Bando allied with Kurama through a deal to repair his cybernetics, damaged in battle with Nana, in exchange for killing Mariko. Mariko was taken away by Isobe and his men before Bando arrived, and instead he targeted Lucy, seeking revenge, since she was still at the scene with Kouta. Episode 13's beginning scenes show he survived another (off-screen) defeat at her hands, with Lucy claiming he will never see her again before leaving him to tend to his wounds. Due to the anime's brevity, he and Mayu don't interact much after their reunion on the beach where Mayu discovers he's targeting Nyu, and thus do not reach the point where Mayu develops feelings for him. Instead, he maintains a barely amicable "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" relationship with Nana. Personality From his first appearance onward, Bando's personality was very distinct. He was an unrepentant sadistic, bloodthirsty, aggressive, arrogant, and uncaring toward others, and had no problem pulling a gun on someone if they're an obstacle in his way. He ached for a good fight more than anything, first demanding he be allowed to shoot real people in the VR training room and later reveling in the chance to fight someone like Lucy who can keep him on his toes. His humiliating and debilitating defeat at Lucy's hands sucked him into a single-minded desire for vengeance against her for the rest of the series, and he went out of his way to prepare for his next match against her so he would win. Despite his brutish behavior and lust for blood, Bando had a softer side. He begrudgingly grew closer to Mayu and, to a lesser extent, Nana, and took care of Kurama when he was mentally incapacitated by Mariko's death. He went to Mayu's defense immediately when he knew she was under attack by the Unknown Man, and beat the predator black and blue for his heinous actions toward a child. He then tended to Nana's wounds, removing the neurotoxin-laced spike balls embedded in her body. He again saved Mayu from being killed by Lucy, getting his body torn in half in the process. Bando also wished to someday settle down and have children of his own. This wish was dashed not only when he discovered Lucy infected him with the Diclonius Virus with her vectors during their fight, ensuring any of his children would have horns, but also later on when she cut him in half, costing him his lower body and ability to reproduce. His knowledge that he could never have children could have prompted him to develop an almost parental relationship with Mayu. This article was originally written for the Elfen Lied Wiki, and is posted here with the full and active permission of that site and its admins. - User Gojirob, Admin/Bureaucrat, Elfen Lied Wiki Source Bando on the Elfen Lied Wiki. Category:Anti Hero Category:Anime Heroes Category:Manga Heroes Category:Mentally Ill Category:Heroic Mercenaries Category:Vengeful Category:Fighter Category:Mechanically Modified Category:Lethal Category:Obsessed Category:Honorable Category:Chaotic Neutral Category:Vigilante Category:Antagonists Category:Military Category:Heroic Jerks Category:Thrill-Seekers Category:Redeemed Villains Category:Male Category:Heroic Misanthropes Category:Nurturer Category:Grey Zone Category:Revived Category:Protector of Innocence Category:Protectors Category:Insecure Category:Brutes Category:Type dependent on Version Category:Wrathful Category:Rogues Category:Arrogant Category:Nemesis Category:Horror Heroes Category:Tragic Category:Pessimists Category:Scapegoat